GOP support grows for hardline Planned Parenthood strategy

Republicans are rallying behind a bare-knuckle strategy to strip Planned Parenthood’s government support via a must-pass fall spending bill, a momentum shift that dramatically increases the chances of a government shutdown fight this fall.

What started out as a push from socially conservative firebrands like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and 18 House members on Wednesday, is spreading to include more centrist members of the Senate GOP. On Thursday, Arizona Republican John McCain, who often tacks to the middle in the Senate, not only backed a plan to link Planned Parenthood defunding with spending legislation, he suggested the move was inevitable.

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“It could invite a fight, but I think most Americans do not believe that their tax dollars should be used to fund the kind of grotesque procedures we’ve seen authenticated,” said McCain, who is trying to box out any primary challenge. “I would vote for a spending bill that defunded it, and that’s the way it’s going to be … it’s pretty obvious.”

Asked about eliminating the organization’s $528 million in government funding in a spending bill, Orrin Hatch of Utah, the chamber’s most senior senator replied: “It’s the right way to go.” Meanwhile, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) said dozens of House Republicans will back his threat — delivered in a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — to shoot down any legislation that funds Planned Parenthood this fall.

“We have to find a way to fund the government without giving any more money to this” organization, Mulvaney said Wednesday evening.

The growing momentum comes as the anti-abortion Center for Medical Progress on Thursday released its fourth undercover video going after the women’s health organization, this time with recordings of a doctor discussing how to avoid the perception of “selling fetal parts across states.” The group says the video proves that Planned Parenthood is trafficking human fetal organs — and both parties expect more videos to come this summer. Planned Parenthood denies that it did anything illegal.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has scheduled a standalone vote on defunding the organization for next week, but it will fail amid Democratic resistance and may only temporarily satisfy the party’s right flank.

With conservatives hungry for a confrontation over Planned Parenthood, and Democrats moving to protect the organization, the battle is brewing over a must-pass spending bill that Congress has to deliver to the president’s desk by Sept. 30 to avoid a repeat of the 2013 shutdown. Conservatives figure using the power of the purse is the best way to force the action, while Democrats say that strategy plays into their hands and will tar Republicans with another shutdown.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is promising to block any effort to strip Planned Parenthood’s federal money, and though the White House hasn’t weighed in officially yet, Democratic aides insist President Barack Obama would not sign any spending bill that eliminates the funding.

But the best Democratic leverage is in the Senate, where Republicans will need at least six Democrats to keep the government funded past Sept. 30. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the future Democratic leader, said point blank on Thursday afternoon if Republicans follow through with linking a defunding provision to a broader government funding bill, the result will be a shutdown.

And Schumer said there’s little risk for Democrats to vote against a rider-laden funding bill this fall, even though Democrats would be in the position of voting against funding the federal government.

“It’s going to be just like the shutdown over ACA. It’s clear that Republicans are saying shut down the government unless I get my way on an extraneous issue. And the American people are wise to that,” Schumer said. “It’s all on their shoulders.”

Right now, Republicans seem unconcerned. Several GOP lawmakers said that a defunding rider would be a good way to sweeten a spending bill they might otherwise oppose, particularly if it’s a stopgap measure that just extends current spending policy.

“I don’t intend on supporting a continuing resolution,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “It would make it a lot easier for me to vote for an extension of funding if there was no money in it for Planned Parenthood.”

Adding fuel to the fire, GOP leaders have refused to rule out the strategy. Asked about it specifically, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday no final decisions have been made, but his lieutenants said in interviews it’s an option for forcing the issue.

But not every Republican is on board. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a leadership ally and social conservative who is spearheading a Planned Parenthood defunding bill with two other co-sponsors, said he’s not ready to make his vote for a broad spending bill contingent on defunding Planned Parenthood.

“I’m not making commitment statements or anything on that,” he said. “I’m not trying to risk a shutdown.”

A senior GOP aide tried to play down the growing support, arguing that those leading the charge to link the spending bills and Planned Parenthood represent a sliver of the congressional GOP: “They’d be a no anyway. So they are irrelevant.”

Republicans are wary of the political consequences. Avoiding further shutdowns is a guiding principle of McConnell’s governance strategy, and with 24 Senate seats to defend next year, leadership and its allies are wary of overreaching and playing into the Democrats’ long-running “war on women” narrative.

“People are going to try to weave this as a war on women. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). Still, he said Republicans have to draw a line: “I would have a difficult time funding something knowingly that it would fund organizations that are going to continue these practices.”

And ahead of the vote next week, moderate Republicans and Democrats were cautious about the issue, given its political potency. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) say they are trying to develop a bipartisan compromise that would address the calls for investigations into Planned Parenthood but not eliminate funding for women’s health programs, a clear effort to head off a major fiscal fight.

Others are trying to stoke the flames of confrontation. The first Republican to back the strategy, Cruz is running a rigidly conservative campaign for president and has blasted McConnell’s roll call on defunding next week, which is expected to fail, as a “legislative show vote.”

“We need leadership from every senator to stop using federal taxpayer funds to fund an organization that has now been caught on tape apparently confessing to multiple felonies,” Cruz said in an interview this week. He will support any effort to defund Planned Parenthood, he added.

Given how Cruz’s strategy to defund Obamacare lit a fire under the conservative base in 2013 and pushed GOP leadership to back defunding Obamacare in a manner that shut down the government, Democrats are happy to see the GOP again pulled to the right. Schumer said the word “shutdown” multiple times in a Thursday media availability, foreshadowing the political battle to come.

“What a political disaster for the Republicans,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “This is deeply objectionable from a policy standpoint, but it’s [also] a political rabbit hole for them.”